Main:Danusia Francis
Coventry, West Midlands, England, UK |Row 6 title = Height |Row 6 info = 5 ft. 4 in. |Row 7 title = Club |Row 7 info = Heathrow Gymnastics |Row 8 title = Coach(es) |Row 8 info = Valorie Kondos-Field Vincent Walduck (former) |Row 9 title = Current status |Row 9 info = Active |Row 10 title = College team |Row 10 info = UCLA Bruins}} Danusia Francis (born 13 May 1994) is a British-born artistic gymnast and was a reserve athlete for the 2012 Summer Olympics team. After the Olympics, she attended UCLA in the United States and competed for the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team. In 2015, she switched nationalities to represent Jamaica internationally. Junior Career Francis made her international debut in 2009, at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, where she won floor exercise silver and team and balance beam bronze medals. She competed at the City of Jesolo Trophy. She won a team silver medal and placed eighth in the all-around. In July, Francis competed at the British Championships in Guildford, United Kingdom. She placed second in the all around final with a score of 53.650. In event finals, she placed first on uneven bars scoring 13.650, second on balance beam scoring 13.600, and first on floor scoring 13.700. In December, she competed at the Gymnasiade in Doha, placing fifth with her team. Senior Career 2010 In July, Francis competed at the British Championships in Guildford, United Kingdom. She placed third in the all around with a score of 55.350. Francis said, "I'm extremely happy. I've had a bit of a difficult run in with a few injuries so to be able to compete here in the first place was great, and gave me a chance to see where I stand compared to some of the other gymnasts. Having missed out on the Europeans, it was good to show the home crowd what I can do and win a medal." 2011 In February, Francis competed at the English Championships in Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom. She placed third in the all around competition with a score of 52.650. In April, Francis competed at the 2011 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Berlin, Germany. In qualifications, she placed twelfth all around with a score of 54.400 which meant that she would move on to the final. She said, "I started of really nervous as we were up on beam first but once Jenni went clear that helped me to relax a bit. The other pieces went well although I maybe played it a bit too safe on bars. The atmosphere was great and we could hear the British fans cheering for us, especially Beth and Hannah when we were on bars.” In the all around final, Francis placed sixteenth with a score of 53.375. Afterwards she said, "I’m mostly happy to have gone clean the whole week in my first major event as a senior. I have learnt a huge amount being here, particularly what it may be like to perform in front of a home crowd as the German fans went crazy for their gymnasts. I now have some understanding of what it may be like if I make it to London next year." In May, Francis participated in the British Teams competition in Guildford, United Kingdom. Her club, Heathrow, finished third and she placed third in the all around with a score of 52.900. In July, Francis competed at the British Championships in Liverpool, United Kingdom. She placed second in the all around with a score of 53.150. Francis said, "I was slightly annoyed more than anything when I fell on beam but I tried to shake it all off and get back from there so I’m really pleased. I’ve got a new floor routine which has quite a lot in it so I found it quite hard stamina wise but was happy to finish with the music!" In October, Francis competed at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Toyko, Japan. She contributed a vault score of 13.566 and a balance beam score of 14.141 towards the British team's fifth place finish. 2012 In March, Francis competed at the English Championships in Kent, United Kingdom. She placed second in the all around competition with a score of 54.650. In May, Francis competed at the 2012 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Brussels, Belgium. She contributed a beam score of 14.000 towards the British team's fourth place finish. At the end of May, Francis participated in the British Teams competition which acted as the first Olympic trial. Her club, Heathrow, placed fourth and she placed second in the all around with a score of 55.100. At the beginning of June, Francis competed at an international friendly with gymnasts from Finland and Spain in Ipswich, United Kingdom which was also the second Olympic trial. She placed sixth in the all around competition with a score of 54.050 and third in the uneven bars final with a score of 13.850. At the end of June, Francis competed at the British Championships in Liverpool, United Kingdom. This is the third and final Olympic Trial to decide the gymnasts that will represent the United Kingdom at the Olympics. She placed sixth in the all around competition with a score of 53.700. In event finals, she placed eighth on uneven bars scoring 11.350 and fourth on balance beam scoring 13.800. 2013 Francis competed in her first season with UCLA. She helped them qualify to the NCAA Championships, where they placed fourth in the Super Six. Individually, Francis made the balance beam event final and debuted a new skill, a free aerial cartwheel from side stand, never seen or done before in women's collegiate gymnastics. However, she fell later on in the routine and finished eighth. In June, Francis was announced as a competitor for Great Britain for the Universiade, taking place in Kazan, Russia in July. She ended up placing sixth on floor exercise. 2015 In March, Francis officially switched nationalities to compete for Jamaica.switch from GBR to JAM In October, she competed at the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, representing Jamaica for the first time internationally, but failed to make the all-around or event finals. 2018 After graduating from UCLA, Francis returned to elite competition at the British Championships in March 2018. Since she still represented Jamaica internationally, she competed as a guest and therefore only competed exhibition routines where her scores didn't actually count. Had they counted, she would've finished eighth on floor exercise and nineteenth in the all-around. In September, she competed at her first Pan American Championships, placing eighth on beam, tenth on bars, and twelfth in the all-around. She also competed at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar in late October, but didn’t make any individual finals. 2019 Francis competed in the guest division of the English Championships, winning the all-around and sweeping all four events. She competed at the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru, making the all-around and beam finals. During the all-around, she placed seventh, and during the beam final she fell on her acro series to finish in seventh place. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. She placed 47th in qualifications, qualifying as an individual to the 2020 Olympics. Medal Count References